Single containers or “kits” of several food products or items have become increasingly popular, particularly for children such as the Lunchables® product line offered by the Assignee herein. These packages include the components for an essentially complete snack or meal in one convenient container. For example, a kit may include a serving of cookies in a main compartment, and have frosting and/or other candy toppings in other smaller compartments of the package. In this way, when the package is opened, a user can pull out the cookies and apply the frosting and toppings as desired thereto. Another example is pizza packages where the pizza crust is in one compartment and toppings including sauce and the like are in the other compartments. The illustrated package herein contains cones, filling and toppings, each in separate compartments.
In providing packaging for such kits, several considerations must be addressed. Because the food items in the kit generally are of a ready-made variety that typically requires little or no preparation by the consumer, the kits are desirable for consumption away from home. For example, parents can send children to school with these package for lunch to provide the parents with the convenience of prepackaged lunches that the children can easily assemble, if needed at lunchtime in school cafeterias. This usage requires that the kits be contained in compact, well-sealed containers that can be easily packed away and/or carried by children. Where the food item in the main compartment is to be combined with food filling or topping-type items in the other compartments, one problem is the requirement that the child remove the food item from the main compartment for ease in the application of the added food items thereto. Because children are typically of limited coordination, generally they undesirably will have to set this item down somewhere such as on a potentially dirty table at school to apply the added food items using one hand to hold the base and the other to remove and apply the added food items.
Environmental and economic concerns also dictate that there be an attempt to limit the amount of packaging material. When a thin film is used to seal the packaging base or tray, it is also used to provide a surface for both advertising and printing required information regarding the contents of the package. Further, the printed film desirably provides a view to the contents of the compartments via clear portions on the film that are substantially devoid of printed material. As is apparent, when the package size is reduced, the space for providing the printed advertising and content information competes with the space required to provide a good size for the windows for viewing the compartment contents.
Given that children are often the primary user of these kits, it is desirable that the food package, and in particular the thin film seal thereof, be easy to open. One problem that has been identified is with packages having a compartment that contains loose food items such as candy pieces, e.g. sprinkles and M&Ms. During the peeling of the seal, the base of the package tends to flex. Accordingly, once the pulling force is removed on the seal, the base rebounds providing a spring-like action which tends to eject or propel the loose-fitting candy pieces out from their compartment spilling them onto surrounding areas.
Normally, two generally rectangularly configured packages are shrink-wrapped together for being displayed in an on-end vertical display orientation. For this purpose, the packages are generally stacked one on top of the other for shrink-wrapping the two together. Accordingly, the ability of the packages of the type considered herein to be consistently stacked in proper alignment for shrink-wrapping is important from a production standpoint. Similarly, the bases of the packages typically include stacking lugs so that the bases can be stacked during production and separated or denested one from another without significant sticking or hangup problems. These stacking lugs take up space on the base, along with the compartments themselves and the upper seal area to which the thin film seal is adhered. Accordingly, the placement of the lugs competes with space for other features provided on the base tray of the package.
Accordingly, there is a need for a compartmentalized food package for ready-to-eat food items having improved functionality in terms of both its utility to users and from display and production standpoints.